8/8 Recap

Third Quarter Outburst pushes Swagger to Victory.

The number one seed in the King of Kings summer Pro-Am showed why they are the team to beat Wednesday night. In a game where the fourth quarter was for all intensive purposes meaningless, Upstate Swagger eliminated The Gunnas in blowout fashion.

The Gunnas, who were without star forward Deandre Preaster stuck with Upstate Swagger up until halftime, when the score was 53-37 in favor of Upstate Swagger. That was all the scoring and defense the Gunnas could produce, as the third quarter was dominated by Upstate Swagger.

Upstate Swagger came out of halftime on a 16-0 run to extend their lead to 32. Within the first three minutes of the half, the game was blown open. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 98-54, meaning Upstate Swagger won the quarter 45-17.

The rest of the game was a combination of lazy defense and three pointers. The game was called with 5 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the final score being 122-81. the leading scorers were Scott Knapp and Scott Morton, finishing with 30 and 29 points respectively. Upstate Swagger plays in the Semi-Finals Friday evening.

In an unexpected lopsided game, Utica Select was eliminated from the playoffs by Syracuse Elite. Syracuse Elite came out with purpose and didn’t let up throughout. The final score was 88-69. The win puts Syracuse Elite in the semi-finals Friday evening.

At halftime, the score was 41-29 in favor of Syracuse Elite. The Syracuse based team seemed to stunt Utica Selects offensive game plan. By locking down on Syracuse University stars Rakeem Christmas and James Southerland, all the pressure to score was on the shoulders of sharp shooter EJ Gallup, who seemed to be unable to buy a three pointer.

Syracuse Elite went up as many as 29 points in the third quarter. Utica Select found themselves unable to capitalize on the various opportunities they had throughout. The Big three for Utica Select, Christmas, Southerland, and Gallup, finished with a surprisingly total number of points.